2-Deoxyglucose and hydroxychloroquine HPLC-MS-MS analytical methods and pharmacokinetic interactions after oral co-administration in male rats.

Our previous work has shown a synergistic tumoricidal efficacy of combining the hexokinase (HK) inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) and the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (CQ) through intraperitoneal injections on HK2-addicted prostate cancers in animal models. The pharmacokinetic (PK) behaviors of these oral drugs after simultaneous oral administration have not been reported. We developed high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS-MS) analytical methods for 2-DG and the clinically favored drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for sera samples. Using a jugular vein-cannulated male rat model with serial blood collection before and after a single gavage dose of each drug alone or in combination, we examined their PK metrics for drug-drug interactions. The data demonstrated a rapid and complete separation of 2-DG from common monosaccharides by HPLC-MS-MS multi-reaction monitoring. Application of the HPLC-MS-MS 2-DG and HCQ methods to sera samples of nine rats showed a peak time (T_max ) for 2-DG of 0.5 h after 2-DG alone or with HCQ and identical post-peak half-life of approximately 1 h. With a seemingly bi-modal time course for HCQ, the T_max for HCQ alone (1.2 h) was faster than that for the combination (2 h; p = .017). After combination dosing, the peak concentration (C_max ) and area under the curve (AUC_0-4h ) of 2-DG were decreased by 53.8% (p = .0004) and 53.7% (p = .0001), whereas AUC_0-8h for HCQ was decreased by 30.8% (p = .0279) from the respective single dosing. Without changing the mean residence time (MRT_0-∞ ) of each drug, the combination affected the apparent volume of distribution (V_d ) and clearance (CL) of 2-DG, and CL for HCQ without affecting its V_d . We observed significant negative PK interactions, probably at the intestinal absorption level, between 2-DG and HCQ taken simultaneously by mouth. Future optimization efforts are warranted for their combination regimen for clinical translation.